Exile

Chapter 33

Kilty Goldfarb was sitting by the window, sipping a milk shake, wearing her fur coat and a ski hat, looking worried and jumpy. She watched Maureen cross the road and come in through the doors. She looked at the table and gathered a thin smile before looking back up.

"I'm sorry if I'm a bit late," said Maureen, sitting across from her. "I nipped over there to the Coach and Horses to check it out. D'ye know it?"

Kilty looked faintly disgusted. "Jesus Christ, I wouldn't go in there. It's full of heavies from home."

"Oh?" Maureen arranged her coat on the seat and put her packet of cigarettes on the table. "It was quiet when I went in."

Their lunch appointment suddenly felt like a bad date. Maureen pointed at the milk shake in front of Kilty. "Can I get you something to go with that?"

"No, I'm short of time," said Kilty, firmly, putting a Woolworths plastic bag on the table, signaling her readiness to leave. "Why don't you just sit down and ask me the questions you want to ask and I'll be on my way?"

Maureen looked at her. "I am sitting down," she said.

"Oh," said Kilty, "good. I've got to get back to work. I'm running late as it is. Ask me the questions and I'll go."

"Look," said Maureen, "ye didn't need to turn up if you were that reluctant to talk to me."

"It's just I don't really know why I'm here," Kilty said stiffly. "You know, in London no one asks to meet a stranger without a reason."

"I've got a reason," said Maureen. "I want to know whereabouts in Wandsworth Mr. Headie's new office is."

"Why?"

"I want to see him, I want to know what sort of cases he deals with and who his clients are."

"And what would knowing Headie's clientele tell you?"

"I want to know what sort of people were familiar with that firm's old name. The headed letter was hand-delivered in Glasgow and the person who sent it might be an old client."

"And what do I get in return?" asked Kilty.

It was a peculiar question. Maureen had the feeling that she was being asked for money but she didn't want to pay her. There would be any number of people who knew about Mr. Headie and the benefits system.

"I can teach you how to smoke," said Maureen.

Kilty smiled at the window.

"Look," said Maureen, "forget it. It doesn't really matter. I can look him up in the phone book or ask someone else."

Kitty picked at the handle of her plastic bag, pulling the two layers of plastic apart. " 'Kay," she said somberly. "But I don't want to get into anything here. I don't want to be your new best friend or anything."

It was ludicrous: Maureen was going home in a couple of days, she was certain that she'd never see the little frog woman again anyway, and she still felt rejected. "Okay Okay. We'll never see each other again after this."

"And you have to tell me the story about the woman," said Kilty. "The woman who's disappeared."

Maureen held up her hands. "I don't know what to tell you. I'm down here because I don't know what's happened to her. She's got two kids, a husband who works in a shipyard as a welder, and she likes to play the piano." Kilty watched her, wanting more. "The last time anyone saw her she was in the Coach and Horses."

Kilty sat with her hands below the table and stared at Maureen's waist.

"That's all I know," said Maureen.

Kilty nodded to her waist and Maureen saw that she was staring at the packet of cigarettes. She had been teasing when she said she'd teach Kilty how to smoke but Kilty was serious. Maureen gave her a fag and a light. Kilty sucked in the smoke, puffing like an overwound automaton, watching the tip of her fag and going very slightly cross-eyed. Maureen was going to tell her to inhale just a little at first, not draw her cheeks in so much and keep her eye off the tip, but she still felt slighted at the suggestion that she was going to trap Kilty into a lifelong friendship. "That's fine, actually," she said. "You're doing that fine."

"Really?"

"Aye."

"It doesn't feel the same as what everyone else does."

"Maybe you're just thinking about it too much."

Kilty looked bewildered. "Hm, maybe. You won't find Mr. Headie in the phone book. He doesn't have a new office. He's in Wandsworth prison."

"What?"

"Yeah, few months ago the whole of Coldharbour Lane was an open drugs market. But now look." She pointed across the street at a tall gray pole with a high steel box aimed down the Lane. "They had a big cleanup and put CCTV all up and down it."

"So now the nervous junkies have to go up dark alleys with their tenners and twenties?"

"Yeah," said Kilty. "Mr. Headie was one of the first casualties in a big cleanup operation. He was arrested with half a kilo of uncut cocaine in his briefcase."

"Mr. Headie was into that, was he?"

"He was skimming money, yeah, legally and illegally. He represented everyone and gave some of them special services. Anyway, he got done." She looked at her watch and seemed concerned. "Is that all?" she said quickly.

"Do you know anything about a trade in benefit books?"

Kilty waved her fag about, getting the feel of it. "I know there is one. They pay a small portion of the value to the person up front. They buy them from alkies and junkies. It's about as low a scam as you can get."

"The woman's child-benefit book is missing. Could anyone cash the book?"

"Not unless she'd signed the back," said Kilty. "When they buy the book they get the person to sign the agent clause on each check. If she'd signed and dated them all in advance they could cash them."

"How much would it be for four kids per week?"

Kilty thought about it. "About fifty-odd quid. I thought you said she had two kids?"

Maureen looked at Kilty and Kilty stared back.

"I didn't say it was her book. Did I?" The question wasn't rhetorical.

"No." Kilty smiled. "You haven't said that yet. But I think you're about to."

Maureen avoided insulting her with the obvious. "If the book was made out to a Glasgow address could she cash it down here?" she asked.

"She'd have to give notice that she was moving," said Kilty. "She'd have to let the post office know in advance where she was moving to and when the first check would be cashed. Like I said, if someone else is cashing the thing they'd need her consent."

If Ann had sold it in London she must have known in advance she was going to run here.

Outside the window the street was busy and shoppers spilled into the road from the market.

"Well, Kilty, that's really all I wanted to know," said Maureen, standing up. "Thanks very much for coming to meet me, despite your misgivings. You've been really helpful." She slid two cigarettes across the table to her. "Keep them to play with."

Kilty reached out and took them. "You really haven't kept your side of the bargain," she said. "You haven't told me anything that wasn't a total lie-" But her reproach was interrupted by the tune from Maureen's pager.

… About…

… Ann. I Am

.. .211 631 Argyle

Street. Brixton

Hill come now.

Maureen sat down again and stared at the message, reading it through and through, trying to understand how anyone could have heard about her within one day of her arrival and how they could have gotten her pager number. The only people who had it were Jimmy, Leslie, Liam and Moe. And the barman from the Coach and Horses. It was the lying barman.

"You haven't told me about the woman." Kilty saw her looking puzzled. "Don't you understand the message?"

"Yeah," said Maureen. "I just don't know how they got my number."

Kilty twisted around and read the address over her shoulder. "Jesus," she said. "You're not going up there on your own, are ye?"

"Why?"

"I wouldn't go up there," said Kilty. "Don't go."

Maureen tutted. "Look, I was up at Dumbarton Court the other day. There's a gang of teenagers hanging around but it's not that bad."

"Dumbarton Court's fine. The Argyle, that's a different country. When they broke up Coldharbour the trade moved up the road. Don't go up there."

It sounded like an order but Maureen couldn't imagine why Kilty thought she'd do what she said. " 'S no big deal – I know the guy who sent the message."

"D'you know him well?"

Maureen wanted so much to be right that she almost lied. "No," she said, "I don't know him at all but I'm going anyway. You can come with me if you're that worried."

Kilty put her Woolies bag on the floor and took out the cigarettes, sitting them on the table. "Give me the address," she said. "I'll wait here for you and if you're not back in an hour I'll call the police."

Maureen showed it to her. Kilty shut her eyes and said it over and over to herself.

"I thought you had to get back to your work?" said Maureen.

Kilty lifted one of the cigarettes, sitting it between her fingers. "I don't work Saturdays." She looked at her prop cigarette and smiled up at Maureen.

"So, all that clock watching," said Maureen. "You've just lied to me continuously?"

"You tell me the truth and I'll tell you the truth." Kilty spread her hand over her tiny grinning face, pretending to puff on her unlit fag like a movie star. "See ye in an hour," she said, exhaling imaginary smoke through her teeth.